Tench Fishing

[@Clive]

Indeed I have ! ...unfortunatly it does not extend to buzzers, bivvies and bolt rigs as they all play a part for me if required...but strangely I wont use a bait boat or place rigs by boat either. ...weird but there you go, we all have our own acceptable lines I guess.

Guessing you mean Spainish "bones" Clive ?...if so, they do appeal ! ...I've had other Barbel over there & always fancied crack at the Cozimo....trouble is the bucket list is getting a bit silly now ..one day !

You can do "bones" along with barbel and carp in the same swim using conventional bait tactics, and fly-fish for them ten minutes away.

I too fancy a crack at Comizo but the logistics are daunting.

 

[Alan Whitty]

You shock me Philip,I had you down as one of those who sent their bait boat out 300 yards via satellite technology,like those on TV who boast of their successes without having any part in the angling,apart from owning the gear perhaps....

 

[Alan Whitty]

You can do "bones" along with barbel and carp in the same swim using conventional bait tactics, and fly-fish for them ten minutes away.

I too fancy a crack at Comizo but the logistics are daunting.

Why are the logistics for catching a coming daunting Clive,I'm very interested?

 

[peterjg]

The tench I catch are by accident when targeting roach, tench particularly like dendra worms. If I were to target specimen tench it would be with homemade peppermint flavoured boilies.

 

[flightliner]

I fished for Tench during the last close season and started and finnished with a simple running feeder rig, the only exception was a day I shared with kev on a Notts water where I fished with float tackle.
Most of the fish I had (when not with Kev) were mostly over five pounds.
Granted, I was fishing with a two rod setup but bites were pretty scarce initially before the weather warmed up.
Bait was a simple combo of dead reds, and a dendrabene, the feeder contained the same but with few grains of sweetcorn.
Interestingly just before the season opened I suffered a blank despite having tench in the swim so for the next two visits I went over to a single quivertip rod fished with just two dead reds on a size sixteen hook and began catching again.

 

[nottskev]

I'm not surprised to read that, Mick - you catch bigger ones of every species than me! When we go barbel fishing, I end up taking pictures of you with yours.

Which method(s) to use really depends on what you want. I rarely weigh fish and I'm definitely more for quantity and action than for selective targeting and a waiting game. I'm happy catching tench of all sizes on light float gear, up close and personal, in the late spring/early summer flush of waters with lots of weeds, reeds etc. If I can find a place with an abundance of them, and I've only found a few of these over a lifetime, I don't care if they don't break 4 or 5lbs.

Chub are rare around here these days. A friend told me, with some excitement, where he'd had one bite and a 6lb chub.
He looked surprised when I said, that's great, but do you know anywhere I can catch a dozen two-pounders?

 

[flightliner]

I'm not surprised to read that, Mick - you catch bigger ones of every species than me! When we go barbel fishing, I end up taking pictures of you with yours.

Which method(s) to use really depends on what you want. I rarely weigh fish and I'm definitely more for quantity and action than for selective targeting and a waiting game. I'm happy catching tench of all sizes on light float gear, up close and personal, in the late spring/early summer flush of waters with lots of weeds, reeds etc. If I can find a place with an abundance of them, and I've only found a few of these over a lifetime, I don't care if they don't break 4 or 5lbs.

Chub are rare around here these days. A friend told me, with some excitement, where he'd had one bite and a 6lb chub.
He looked surprised when I said, that's great, but do you know anywhere I can catch a dozen two-pounders?

I like your last paragraph Kev.
It kind if sums you up as an angler in my mind.
Me, coming from a match angling background until personal circumstances made me change the way I fished am not averse to having the occasional day with a trip to the river using a stick float and hemp n tare as it's such an enjoyable way of catching fish.
I sometimes feel that many anglers could missing out on the pleasures that catching a nice net of Roach, Dace, Chub etx can bring.
But as they say"Each to there own".

 

[GrayG70]

To be fair, despite all the techniques, any method would work, any simple float method, and yes even feeder method, but just go with a basic float setup, doesnt have to be lift method, so long as youre on the bottom all good, most tench ive caught are so fast on the take anyway. any baits are good, even bread, dough, corn, if its a heavily fished carp water with boilies id use anything but boilies for 2 reasons, 1 avoiding carp and 2, fish can become wary of boilies and colours. Good old worms work well too for tench.

 

[mikench]

Simple maggots work well too plus corn.

 

[ian g]

I have been fishing my local canal catching a few tench on worms or maggots . Have to wade through quite a few bream though fishing a waggler

 

[Keith M]

As for baits that I’ve found especially good for tench; I used to win and get placed in quite a few evening and night matches on our clubs estate lake catching Tench using ‘Redworm’ which I would collect from underneath heaps of rotting horse manure from an adjacent field.

Redworm are a lot more lively than dendros or lobworms or brandlings which is probably why they were especially good; and Redworm are slightly smaller than dendros and brandlings too.

Other baits that I used to catch Tench on in these evening matches on the estate lake were flavoured breadflake (using a spray ‘wasp cake’ flavouring or a ‘bun spice’ flavouring) or sweetcorn.

I also used to use a groundbait containing Mollases or dried ox-blood with the groundbait containing Mollases being my preferred choice.

Keith